Many vehicle manufacturers have utilized a large amount of resources to design more fuel efficient vehicles. In many cases, manufacturers have tweaked vehicle engine performance or designed different types of engines to ensure that vehicle engines run more efficiently. In some cases hybrid electric technology has been utilized to enable the vehicle to use two power sources that in most cases consist of a battery powered electrical source and a gasoline source. Many hybrid vehicles and some non hybrid vehicles are designed with the battery powered electrical source to serve as part of an idle-stop system that disables the gasoline engine when the vehicle is at rest, and in some cases when the vehicle is coasting or slowing down. The idle-stop system causes vehicles to be more fuel efficient as fuel is saved and not burned inside the engine since the engine is disabled (i.e., turned off) when the vehicle is in the idle-stop state.
In addition to tweaking engine performance, another key factor that has influenced fuel consumption within vehicles is the performance of the air conditioning system. In traditional air conditioning systems, the air conditioning compressor is driven by a belt assembly connected with the vehicle engine in order to feed compressed fluid to an evaporator, which cools air passing over the evaporator. In order to keep up with the demand of the vehicle cabin temperature requirements, the compressor is utilized as long as the vehicle is enabled. Consequently, as the air conditioning system is utilized, the engine is required to perform at higher levels causing more fuel to be consumed. The high level of fuel consumption is inconsistent with the goals of increasing fuel efficiency as the traditional air conditioning system can not be utilized with vehicles that include the idle-stop system.
For example, when the vehicle is in the idle-stop state the air conditioner compressor is also disabled (since the engine is disabled) resulting in no compressed fluid to be fed to the evaporator. Accordingly, temperature in the evaporator increases and the demand of the vehicle cabin temperature requirements can not be met. In many cases, the air conditioning system needs to make up for the deficiency in regards to the cabin temperature requirements that is caused when the vehicle was disabled during the idle-stop state. Consequently, the engine is required to perform at higher levels causing an even greater amount of fuel to be consumed which undermines the ultimate goal of producing a more fuel efficient vehicle with the idle-stop system.